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Is Freedom Dying in India?

 

India's status in the Freedom Report

India is set to celebrate its 75th Independence Day amid a pandemic that seems determined to teach the world certain lessons. One of the first lessons that India should learn at this juncture is the meaning of freedom.

As long as every citizen is not free – free from poverty, superstition, illiteracy, ignorance, and other such evils – the country’s independence from a foreign rule cannot make much sense. That was the firm opinion of the father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi. Freedom, in other words, is not mere political freedom. Freedom is personal, highly so.

It is this personal freedom that is being killed brutally by the present dispensation in Delhi. Narendra Modi has created an India that the is the exact opposite of what Gandhi had envisaged. The transition from Gandhi’s mystic vision to Modi’s cabalistic vision is total now. Even international observers have made detailed studies about it and put out reports.

Freedom House is one such international organisation whose latest report has taken India out of the list of free countries and placed it among ‘partly free’ countries. Freedom is dying in India. It is being killed slowly. Democracy is dying. Being killed by none other than the country’s Prime Minister.

“India’s status declined from Free to Partly Free,” says the report, “due to a multiyear pattern in which the Hindu nationalist government and its allies presided over rising violence and discriminatory policies affecting the Muslim population and pursued a crackdown on expressions of dissent by the media, academics, civil society groups, and protesters.”

A lot of Indians have been stripped of their various freedoms by Modi and his cabal. Muslims, academics, civil society groups, and protesters are mentioned specifically by the Freedom House Report. There are many others too who belong to that list. Dalits, for example. Stand-up comics. Cartoonists, Journalists. TV channel owners and executives. Poets. Even students and farmers. Who is left then? Who is free, that is? Only those who belong to the cabal, those who chant ‘Heil Modi’ on every available public platform.

Ask young students like Natasha Narwal and Devangana Kalita whether they are free in India. Ask climate activist Disha Ravi how free she feels in Modi’s India. Ask a politician like Akhil Gogoi or a much senior one like Farooq Abdullah. You have Erendro Leichombam and Kishore Chandra Wankhem from Manipur to narrate the ridiculous losses of their freedoms. Ask Aisha Sultana how a metaphor can land you in jail for treason.

You have people from every walk of life now languishing in stinking prisons, perhaps even dying there like Stan Swamy, merely for expressing their dissent with the Modi government. Of course, serious charges are levelled against them. 84-year-old Stan Swamy was accused of nothing less than treason. He conspired to kill Modi! That old man’s story is at once heart-breaking and farcical. He was arrested along with 15 others for allegedly organising the Bhima Koregaon commemoration of a battle which was won by a British army - consisting mostly of Dalits – against the Peshwas in 2018. None of the 16 arrested, except one, participated in the event. The real culprits who created the ruckus during the event were not arrested at all; they were all upper caste Hindus who supported Modi’s party. Later false data was planted in the laptops of the arrested people like old and ailing Stan Swamy, data that hit two very potent targets: 1. conspiracy to assassinate Modi (the biggest crime in the cosmos!) and 2. Maoist treason.

What was Stan Swamy’s actual crime? He had questioned many of the government’s policies that went against the interests of the Dalits.

You are not free to question the Bigg Boss of India. But you are free to celebrate the 75th Independence Day next week with him. Jai Hind.

From India Today


PS. This post is a part of Blogchatter Half Marathon. 

 

Comments

  1. Yamini MacLeanAugust 9, 2021 at 12:41 PM

    Hari Om
    I had noted that report came out - and was glad to see the downtick against India. Now it is hoped that the world will start to make noises towards the perpetrator so that he knows he runs a risk of intervention... though saying that, without oil as a motivator, does the world at large (and the USA in particular) have any interest in helping out its neighbours? It's like COVID. Knowing the disease is one thing, eradicating it is quite another. YAM xx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalAugust 10, 2021 at 9:44 AM

      In the old world, countries helped one another. Now it's like they are all trying to prove that each one of them is the best.

      Delete
  2. ArtiAugust 10, 2021 at 12:52 PM

    I read this post with a heavy heart.

    In fact, just yesterday, I finished writing the last verse of a poem I've been working on for sometime. It's about personal freedom--and what my views of independence are. The personal and the political are never separate. And therein lies the tragedy of what's happening in India today.

    Sadness and disbelief at how far we've come from the days and views of Gandhi.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalAugust 10, 2021 at 1:50 PM

      It is indeed immensely saddening. The present scenario in the country is an ideal example of how a system can distort people's thinking, attitudes and emotions.

      Delete
  3. AnonymousAugust 10, 2021 at 2:41 PM

    Bloggers and Vloggers are getting arrested i Kerala. Yesterday, two people were arrested in Kerala. So according to you Kerala communists can do anything.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalAugust 10, 2021 at 2:48 PM

      They are arrested for crime, not for writing or speaking... What are you trying to do here? Indulge in the typical Sanghi pastime of distorting truth?

      Delete
  4. जितेन्द्र माथुरAugust 10, 2021 at 3:38 PM

    Right you are. This freedom is a hoax. The Indian premier has even outsmarted Machiavelli. He has mastered the art of playing the victim while being the oppressor himself. Now the funny situation is that the conspirator himself spreads the news that some people are conspiring to kill him. Wow ! His weeping for the Corona victims in front of the camera must be one of the most seen video clips gone viral. After seeing that clip, the thought that came to my mind was that his performance deserved an Oscar award.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalAugust 10, 2021 at 4:11 PM

      Oscar can think of a special lifetime achievement award 😅

      Delete
  5. Prasanna RaghavanAugust 16, 2021 at 2:27 PM

    Discriminating the majority for the minory's welfare is the very seminal plot at the centre of an India evolved around the Chrisitan era, the death of the old India and the emergences of the royalty. It continues. Was Gandhi free from that ideolgy is a question when he is darkened by Ambedkar.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalAugust 16, 2021 at 6:07 PM

      Is that discrimination really true? If it were, the Muslims in India would be much better off.

      Delete

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